Horticultural grow lights are subject to performance tradeoffs between multiple factors. The multiple factors may include power efficiency, light intensity, and quality of light coverage. With respect to efficiency, some conventional solutions are energy intensive and produce excessive heat radiation. For example, high intensity discharge (HID) bulbs may degrade over time, which means they have to be replaced regularly to maximize photosynthetic activity. Light emitting diode (LED) lights have longer lifespans but are difficult to service and often fail to produce a full light spectrum.
With respect to intensity, plants generally thrive with 600 μMols of light during their vegetative growth stage, and 800 μMols to 1000 μMols for the flowering stage. As used herein, Mol refers to one mole of light that illuminates a surface, specifically Avogadro's number of photons illuminating the surface. Both stages rely on even distribution of light across an intended canopy space to achieve maximum growth.
With respect to quality of light coverage, plants have been evolving for millions of years under light spectrum from the sun. Recreating that light spectrum in an indoor environment has always been a challenge. For example, some lighting solutions rely on different types of light sources, such as a combination of high pressure sodium (HPS) bulbs, metal halide (MH) bulbs, and ultraviolet (UV) bulbs to create a well-rounded light spectrum. LED lights may easily target specific wavelengths, but a full light spectrum may at best be created using a large array of diodes having varied color temperatures. However, the use of such a large array of diodes adds hardware complexity and may generate excessive heat. Furthermore, lighting solutions that are able to avoid the problems of incandescent lights, HID lights, and LED lights may not have controllers with sufficient control fidelity or solution integration.